Unit 2 - management and leadership:

• Leadership

  • Inspiring employees
  • Creating a vision - a clear sense of the purpose and direction of the business
  • Shaping the core values & culture of the business
  • Building effective teams
• Changing organisational structures

  • Flatter hierarchies + greater use of delegation
  • Increasing emphasis on teamwork + focus on quality assurance
  • Coaching, support & empowerment
• Rapid change

  • Change is becoming a constant feature of business life
  • Soft skills of leadership & management increasingly important
• Leaders

  • Set the strategy and objectives
  • Inspire people
  • Build relationships
  • Take risks
  • Have followers
• Managers

  • Implement the strategy
  • Coordinate resources
  • Use their authority to take decisions
  • Manage risks
  • Have subordinates
• Levels of management

  • Senior Management
  • Middle Management
  • Junior Management
• Junior Management

  • Supervisory role, accountable to middle management
  • Monitor & control day-to-day tasks, and manage teams of workers
• Traditional classifications of leadership style

  • Authoritarian
  • Paternalistic
  • Democratic
  • Laissez-faire
• The use of autocratic leadership styles is increasingly viewed as out-dated in the modern business
• Factors suggesting a move away from autocratic leadership

  • Changes in society's values
  • Better-educated workforce
  • Focus on need for soft HR skills
  • Changing workplace organisation
  • Greater workplace legislation
  • Pressure for greater employee involvement
• Tannenbaum and Schmidt Continuum

  • Illustrates a range of potential leadership and management styles
  • Recognises that the chosen leadership style depends on a variety of factors, including the leader's personality, the perceived qualities of subordinates, and situational factors such as the need for urgency in leadership and decision-making
• Tannenbaum and Schmidt Continuum

  Represents a range of action related to the degree of authority used by the leader or manager and the area of freedom
• Greater workplace legislation

  • Pressure for greater employee involvement
• Tannenbaum and Schmidt Continuum of Leadership Behaviour

  Illustrates a range of potential leadership and management styles
• Range of action represented by the Tannenbaum and Schmidt Continuum

  • Degree of authority used by the leader or manager
  • Area of freedom available to non-managers
• Four main styles of leadership identified by the Tannenbaum and Schmidt Continuum

  • Tells
  • Sells
  • Consults
  • Joins
• Tells

  Leader identifies problems, makes decision and announces to subordinates; expects implementation
• Sells

  Leader still makes decision, but attempts to overcome resistance through discussion & persuasion
• Consults

  Leader identifies problem and presents it to the group. Listens to advice and suggestions before making a decision
• Joins

  Leader defines the problem and passes on the solving & decision-making to the group (which manager is part of)
• Concern for Task (High = 9 Low = 1)

  The degree to which a leader emphasizes concrete objectives, organizational efficiency and high productivity when deciding how best to accomplish a task
• Five extremes on the Blake Mouton Grid

  • Impoverished Management
  • Country Club Management
  • Task Management
  • Team Management
  • Middle of the Road Management
• Leadership style

  The manner and approach of providing direction, implementing plans, and motivating people
• Management

  The art of getting things done through people (source: Drucker)
• The need to make decisions is at the heart of setting up, leading and managing a business. Decision-making takes place all the time at various levels within a business – all the way from the top corporate (board) level through the actions of employees at the "shop-floor".
• Examples of decisions

  • (not provided)

  
• Organisational Structure - Who Makes the Decisions?

  Who has authority to take decisions? Are employees empowered to take decisions to deliver more responsive customer service? Is decision-making centralised or decentralised?
• Attitude to Risk

  Close link to business culture. Is risk-taking encouraged? What are the penalties for poor decisions?
• Availability & Reliability of Data

  Is the data available to support a scientific approach? Are management comfortable with using scientific methods? Do they have the right skills and experience?
• The External Environment

  How fast is the external environment changing?
• Decision-making

  Centralised or decentralised
• Attitude to risk

  • Close link to business culture
  • Risk-taking encouraged
  • Penalties for poor decisions
• Availability & reliability of data

  • Data available to support a scientific approach
  • Management comfortable with using scientific methods
  • Management have the right skills and experience
• Scientific

  • Based on data and analysis
  • Time-consuming & costly
  • No guarantee of the right decision
  • Increasingly common and automated, supported by Big Data and data analytics
• More widespread availability of data
• Greater sophistication of data analytics & skills / experience of data analysts
• Management expectation that data will be used wherever possible, particularly where a decision is significant to the business
• Opportunity cost

  The cost of missing out on the next best alternative
• For most businesses resources are limited (particularly start-ups)
• When resources are scarce, significant decisions about what to spend and where to focus become more risky